After Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed concern over the conflict of interests in increasing pictorial warnings on tobacco products, beedi baron Lok Sabha BJP MP Shyam Charan Gupta did not attend the meeting of the parliamentary committee for subordinate legislations on Monday, where the issue was discussed again.

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The committee earned a great degree of infamy after its chairman Dilip Kumar Gandhi and member, Gupta, denied any link between tobacco use and cancer, saying that there is no Indian study to prove so. After the PM, on Saturday, advised the health ministry to increase the pictorial warnings from the current 40 per cent to 65, the committee met again on Monday to discuss the issue and has refrained from issuing any recommendations yet.

Committee member and Trinamool MP Idris Ali said that it was unfortunate that someone with direct interests in the tobacco industry was involved in the committee and the recommendation process, and that it should not have happened. Though not specifically stating whether the committee will also talk to health and medicine experts, not just representatives of the tobacco lobby, he said that the committee will talk to everyone concerned as this was a matter of crores of lives.

Ali added that the next step is an informal programme in Kolkata on April 13, where the committee will meet beedi workers. This is the labour class that gets directly affected by any decisions of recommendations impacting the industry. Gupta is not expected to attend.

Meanwhile, Congress released its statement strongly condemning the Modi government's "policy of propagating and promoting 'Tobacco Lobby in India to the peril of the common citizen". The statement brings up the controversial removal of Harsh Vardhan as the Union health minister in November last year in favour of JP Nadda, who, the Congress alleges is closer to the tobacco lobby than Vardhan was.

Vardhan, now the Union science minister has also rubbished any talk of delinking cancer and tobacco, saying that "tobacco produces nothing less than death".

The Congress, however, is on shaky grounds itself, as during the UPA government's tenure, in 2010, then Union minister and NCP leader Praful Patel, who is one of India's leading beedi barons, had attended a meeting of a group of ministers on tobacco. Post that meeting, the GoM postponed the implementation of the new pictorial warnings. Then, in 2012, figures emerged in media reports that ITC Ltd, one of India's leading cigarette manufacturers had donated Rs 6.78 crores to major political parties in the country, alarming health activists about the impact of the tobacco lobby. Figures in media reports stated that the Congress got Rs 3 crore and the BJP got Rs 2.50 crore.

SC to hear plea

The Supreme Court is set to hear a plea soon, filed by advocate Prashant Bhushan on behalf of the NGO Health for Millions Trust, that urges the SC to force the government to increase pictorial warnings on all tobacco products. On Monday, the court called additional solicitor general Ranjit Kumar to ask him what the health ministry's stand is.